The Perpetual Motorcycle Thread 2

It's like there's a group in Honda that is designing bikes that they think people should be riding, rather than what people actually want to buy.

This does seem to be true, but I don't think they're designing anything with the US as the primary market anymore, and the rest of the world might be a bit more practical and less resistant to change.

I have no interest in the cruiser riding position (although I have very little experience with it to base that on, admittedly), but if I did want to go that route, I prefer this to the retro style everyone else is stuck with. Part of my dislike of cruisers is how freaking boring they are. I do appreciate some aesthetic properties of older bikes that were lost with the advent of fairings, but I don't understand the intolerance of anything that doesn't look like it could be from the fifties.

I'm not ready to replace just, but I know I'm going to need new tires for my FZ8 at some point. What's everyone like for a sport touring tire?

I need good mileage as my commute is about 45 miles, so dual compound is pretty much a must. I've heard good things about the Pilot Road 2 and 3s. Is there anything else I should even look at?

If you're doing commuting riding in all weather conditions, and not doing massive canyon carving on the weekends, the Road 3 is an excellent tire. A lot of us here are running them, and are all very happy with them. It's good down to icy conditions as well - not recommended, but if you're careful, it's quite possible to ride on ice with them.

I wholeheartedly suggest them.

If you want something grippier, Dunlop Q2s are good tires, but I can't say I'd recommend them for commuting use - they're just more tire than you need, and last half the life of the Road 2s/Road 3s.

So I was talking with a buddy yesterday and vanity plates came up. Anybody here have a personalized vanity plate for their bike? I was thinking 'AMF' popularized by the A-Team would be funny and appropriate for a motorcycle, but it's already taken. Then I searched 'ZOMG' and it is available.

[edit] 'spork' and 'moist' are available. And if I want to be ironic and throw people off, so is 'klutz'.

Motorcyclist has a good first-look at those new Hondas. Some key bits...

Quote:

American Honda representatives present in Chicago told us their market research shows that new riders and especially non-riders increasingly prioritize function and economy above all else. “It’s not like the old days; not so many new riders are interested in CBR600RRs anymore,” we were told. Accordingly, the CTX utilizes the same mildly tuned, 700cc parallel twin engine from the NC700X, which delivers class-leading fuel economy (expect north of 60 mpg), usable low- and midrange power, and very low emissions at the cost of some riding excitement. The low-slung, tubular-steel chassis is also identical to the NC700, which should mean the CTXes will offer neutral, low-effort maneuverability and excellent stability that makes it easy for even a newbie to master....With a narrow centerline and super-low, 28.3-inch seat height that let even this 5-foot-7 tester flat-foot with a healthy knee bend, the riding position feels natural and will be inviting and confidence-inspiring even for small or uncertain riders. Though forward-set foot controls and pullback handlebars make it look like a cruiser in pictures, the shorter reach to narrower bars and more compact overall dimensions make the CTX700 feel from the saddle more like a step-through scooter than any traditional motorcycle, cruiser or otherwise....The CTX700 and CTX700N will appear in Honda dealerships in late spring of 2013, as 2014 models. Honda tells us that these two 700cc machines are just the beginning—the manufacturer will soon offer a full family of similar-concept, CTX-prefix machines “of various displacements and engine configurations,” all intended to invite more new riders into the motorcycling fold. The CTX will not replace the NC family: the two families will exist side-by-side, with the NCs positioned as practical and economical options for existing motorcyclists, while the CTX series will be aimed more directly at newbies.

Honda is expecting these new machines will be solid sellers, feeding strong dealer demand for inexpensive, entry-level products. Honda officials wouldn’t share any hard numbers, but did say that dealers have taken essentially every CBR250, CB500 variant, and NC700X they have been offered, suggesting that demand for this general type of motorcycle is very strong indeed. The time for another two-wheeled renaissance in America is long overdue, and who better than those nice people at Honda to kick it off? History, after all, does tend to repeat itself.

New Honda 500s are very nice.New KTM 390 Duke is even nicer. Very small and light.New Triumph Daytona and Street Triples are lovely.Suzuki have a limited edition SV650 in old Heron Suzuki colours (Think Barry Sheene 500GP era).

I'm not ready to replace just, but I know I'm going to need new tires for my FZ8 at some point. What's everyone like for a sport touring tire?

I need good mileage as my commute is about 45 miles, so dual compound is pretty much a must. I've heard good things about the Pilot Road 2 and 3s. Is there anything else I should even look at?

If you're doing commuting riding in all weather conditions, and not doing massive canyon carving on the weekends, the Road 3 is an excellent tire. A lot of us here are running them, and are all very happy with them. It's good down to icy conditions as well - not recommended, but if you're careful, it's quite possible to ride on ice with them.

I wholeheartedly suggest them.

If you want something grippier, Dunlop Q2s are good tires, but I can't say I'd recommend them for commuting use - they're just more tire than you need, and last half the life of the Road 2s/Road 3s.

I live in Indiana. The roads are largely flat and straight around here, unfortunately. PR3s it is.

I agree that he should try the simple way first, I just have to point out, since you've mentioned it a few times, that not all carb racks have to be split to be given a good soak, depending on the rack design and chemical you're using.

Fair enough, though soaking a quad rack without tearing it apart requires a few gallons of chemical. I've helped with CB750 carbs (straight 4), and I've worked on Goldwing carbs (flat 4). The CX500 carbs were quite well behaved (mostly due to me regularly running seafoam through the gas, I think), and the Blast carb is really sort of cheating in that it's one carb. And is also well behaved & stays clean, because that bike gets a ton of riding. The dip buckets I'm familiar with are the "paint bucket" style ones that wouldn't fit a quad rack without splitting nit.

In any case, I quite appreciate fuel injection.

I've done both mid 70's CB750 carbs and the carbs on my GS1100. The hardest part about doing a full cleaning is getting them off the bike. Doing a full tear down ensures they are really clean the first time, allows you to replace the various o-rings inbetween the carb bodies, and dissasemble the choke mechanisms to make sure they are clean. Nothing worse than putting the carbs back on the bike to have one of the fuel rail orings start to leak after you have it all buttoned back up. It's been a long time since I did the CB750's so there may be some other things as well that can only be checked with the carbs seperated from each other. My experience may be skewed from having to bring very neglected bikes back to life and not ones that got stored impropoperly over winter, but I don't consider carbs clean that haven't been torn apart. YMMV.

Time to look into ordering new helmet for spring. Do I order another N104 to replace my crashed one, or do I go with the Neotec? Decisions.... The Neotec was a bit more comfortable but damn it's 250$ more than the N104.

Been yakking with the service manager at my dealership. He's frustrated by the scarcity of GS owners who actually deign to dirty their bikes. So, he wants to put together some local rides with a decent FSR component and make "events" out of them. If you buy a backroads mapbook and look at the area inside 1 day from Vancouver, there's a SHITLOAD of wee black lines, some amazing views, hot springs, quiet lakes, etc.

WTF does this have to do with me? He's mulling the idea of having the dealership buy me a GoPro and sending me out to "scout" things like the Harrison to Boston Bar run.

I can see his point. I was in for front brake pads a couple of weeks ago and got to witness someone picking up their GS-Adv after a servicing. The bike left on a goddamn trailer, and averages maybe 5k km/year. For further gits and shiggles, there was a 2011 F650GS sitting out back of the shop yesterday. TWO THOUSAND KILOMETERS!

So I'm hoping this flies. I wouldn't mind free hardware in exchange for something I'm going to do anyway. I'd also get a kick out of getting some virgins dirty

If you'll be doing work for the dealer, make sure you work out some arrangement for medical insurance in case you get injured and insurance for your bike if it gets damaged. Otherwise, have fun!

I'm a Canuck, I'm covered for medical. WCB for "official" work with financial compensation, or MSP + extended for everything else. As for the bike, if this DOES go anyplace, I'll work something out. Ought to be straightforward to get them to cover parts + labour seeing as they're already my go-to shop.

3000 miles/yr on an Adventure? That's sad unless the owner owns half a dozen bikes. At that point, it does become hard to put a lot of miles on all of them. Probably not the case...

Low mileage BMWs are rare. I asked about one in Abq that was a 1 year old bike with only a few thousand on it and it turns out it was the least favorite bike of the owner's 8 and he didn't ride it enough.

So I was talking with a buddy yesterday and vanity plates came up. Anybody here have a personalized vanity plate for their bike? I was thinking 'AMF' popularized by the A-Team would be funny and appropriate for a motorcycle, but it's already taken. Then I searched 'ZOMG' and it is available.

I'd expect somebody to roll up pulling a flatbed WITH a GSA, with another bike on the trailer.

I know a bunch of GS and GSA owners who won't take their bikes on anything rougher than a gravel road though. I can't say I blame some of them--after buying a $20k bike new and adding another $5k-$10k in farkles, I don't know that I'd go pitching it across crazy stuff either.

So I was talking with a buddy yesterday and vanity plates came up. Anybody here have a personalized vanity plate for their bike? I was thinking 'AMF' popularized by the A-Team would be funny and appropriate for a motorcycle, but it's already taken. Then I searched 'ZOMG' and it is available.

DrFaulken had "WTFZ6" on his FZ6.

Oh, that's right. I think his FJR has "WTFJR".

I'm kind of leaning towards either "SPORK" or "KLUTZ". Or, in honor of the Sweedish Chef from the Muppets, "BORK" is also available. Then again, custom plates are pretty expensive. It's a $35 initial cost, then $18.75/year in addition to your registration fee.

If it has a large hunk of mountain sticking out of the engine case, I can see trailering it...

Jehos wrote:

I'd expect somebody to roll up pulling a flatbed WITH a GSA, with another bike on the trailer.

Though, yes, I'd much more expect to see it towing something than being towed by a truck. Assuming it still ran.

Jehos wrote:

I know a bunch of GS and GSA owners who won't take their bikes on anything rougher than a gravel road though. I can't say I blame some of them--after buying a $20k bike new and adding another $5k-$10k in farkles, I don't know that I'd go pitching it across crazy stuff either.

Heh. I take the 1125R on dirt fire roads, and I've taken the XB9 out on some pretty damned shitty reservation roads. Dirt, potholes, all sorts of shit in the road. It's time to slow down when you start fully packing the front suspension... I've legitimately bottomed the suspension out a few times on dirt, and it gets your attention in a hurry.

I had BRICK on the K75 and got a lot of "I know that bike!" reactions from people because of it. I thought about getting TRIPLE and SINGLE or STREET and DIRT, figuring that I'll probably always have two bikes to wear those. At $45 a year for a vanity plate, though, I just don't care enough.

He realizes that some car drivers see lane-splitters as borderline cheaters cutting ahead of others, but he says the practice is actually safer for motorcyclists than politely staying in line in a lane.

He realizes that some car drivers see lane-splitters as borderline cheaters cutting ahead of others, but he says the practice is actually safer for motorcyclists than politely staying in line in a lane.

I'm curious if that's based on actual data. I know the article mentions that they get more crashes of motorcycles into the back of cars that they do crashes related to splitting, but that's not exactly a car intruding on a motorcyclist, rather it's the other way around. I'd be curious to see numbers comparing splitting crashes to bikes being rear-ended or merged into while not splitting.

I don't think I commented on it when Saint first linked to the new CHP guidelines, but I think they're great. That's about as reasonable as you can get. What's probably needed next is a public awareness campaign funded by motorcycle owners clubs.

On the 'actual data' issue, I kind of doubt it is. That RideApart show was a demonstration in how you can make any argument appear to be supported by data, just so long as you don't apply logic. They compared helmet-required California fatalities to Florida and Texas, TWO NON-HELMET-LAW STATES. And the fact that there are fewer rear-end fatalities where lane splitting is allowed is useless, too. If you had motorcyclists ride in the oncoming lane, there wouldn't be ANY rear-end accidents. That doesn't mean it would be safer.

I don't think I commented on it when Saint first linked to the new CHP guidelines, but I think they're great. That's about as reasonable as you can get. What's probably needed next is a public awareness campaign funded by motorcycle owners clubs.

While a lot of cars move a little to assist me when splitting, a lot of cars clearly drive in a way where they're acting "Hey I ain't movin' or assistin' no lane splitting cheaters". 50% of Californian car drivers aren't aware it's legal.

I want to pull my bike out of storage. It's been above 0 for almost a week now and even though the roads are covered in traction gravel I could totally ride. But I'll pull the bike out and it'll snow 6 inches.

He realizes that some car drivers see lane-splitters as borderline cheaters cutting ahead of others, but he says the practice is actually safer for motorcyclists than politely staying in line in a lane.

I'm curious if that's based on actual data. I know the article mentions that they get more crashes of motorcycles into the back of cars that they do crashes related to splitting, but that's not exactly a car intruding on a motorcyclist, rather it's the other way around. I'd be curious to see numbers comparing splitting crashes to bikes being rear-ended or merged into while not splitting.

The alternative to lane splitting is not sitting calmly in traffic. The alternative is swooping and aggressive lane changes. That is decidedly less safe than lane splitting. Squid is as squid does.

He realizes that some car drivers see lane-splitters as borderline cheaters cutting ahead of others, but he says the practice is actually safer for motorcyclists than politely staying in line in a lane.

I'm curious if that's based on actual data. I know the article mentions that they get more crashes of motorcycles into the back of cars that they do crashes related to splitting, but that's not exactly a car intruding on a motorcyclist, rather it's the other way around. I'd be curious to see numbers comparing splitting crashes to bikes being rear-ended or merged into while not splitting.

The alternative to lane splitting is not sitting calmly in traffic. The alternative is swooping and aggressive lane changes. That is decidedly less safe than lane splitting. Squid is as squid does.

If I tried lane splitting I'd tear every mirror of of every vehicle I passed. When I ride for any distance my bike is probably as wide as a Mini. 45L Trax-ALU boxes off both sides add some serious dimensions to a Tiger 800.

My Alpinestars GP Plus gloves have finally bit the dust. Well, they'd already halfway bit the dust when I crashed in them, but now a seam is coming unraveled. These are my warm weather commuting gloves. They were doing track duty also but I have some other gloves I can use for the track.

The Lee Parks deerskin gloves look really interesting. They're lacking in impact protection, but after two crashes now I don't think impact protection did much for me, whereas both sets of gloves shredded up pretty well, with one set getting a hole worn in them. Olympia also makes a set of deerskin gauntlets, but I'm not sure those have any kind of protection other than the leather itself.

If I tried lane splitting I'd tear every mirror of of every vehicle I passed. When I ride for any distance my bike is probably as wide as a Mini. 45L Trax-ALU boxes off both sides add some serious dimensions to a Tiger 800.

If I tried lane splitting I'd tear every mirror of of every vehicle I passed. When I ride for any distance my bike is probably as wide as a Mini. 45L Trax-ALU boxes off both sides add some serious dimensions to a Tiger 800.

California highway lanes tend to be pretty wide. You'd be surprised.

I'm torn which of your posts to reply too. It was nerve racking splitting an F800GS with Vario bags on through Italian traffic and they have practice with lane splitting. Splitting near an American would terrify me, I might get shot or something!

Question... what's the best way to get rust off of a chain effectively?

Last night I shoveled all the snow away from my bike. This morning, I noticed some bright orange rust on a few links. It being parked outside unridden for over a month with up and down temperatures, varying between snow and rain, is not helping at all. While it may be a good day to ride later in the afternoon, commuting to work is often a no-op since it was below freezing overnight and there's still ice on the ground. This winter definitely has been having more precipitation compared to last year.

Question... what's the best way to get rust off of a chain effectively?

Last night I shoveled all the snow away from my bike. This morning, I noticed some bright orange rust on a few links. It being parked outside unridden for over a month with up and down temperatures, varying between snow and rain, is not helping at all. While it may be a good day to ride later in the afternoon, commuting to work is often a no-op since it was below freezing overnight and there's still ice on the ground. This winter definitely has been having more precipitation compared to last year.

Ride it? Unless it's affecting the movement of the chain I wouldn't worry about it personally.